Manga Review: The Story of Saiunkoku, Volume 4, by Kairi Yura and Sai Yukino

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: 2011

Volumes: 9

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3. 5.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Shurei Hong, destitute but of noble birth, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the Imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from holding office. The emperor Ryuki, however, refuses to take command, leaving everything to his advisers. Shurei is asked to become a consort to the emperor to persuade the ne'er-do-well ruler to govern.

Shurei has been disguising herself as a boy to assist Kijin Ko, the esteemed Minister of the Treasury. Despite Ryuki's plan to allow females to take the civil service exam, many remain opposed to the idea, including Kijin. Will Shurei be able to convince the discerning minister to change his mind?

Review:

I really want to like this series, but I think I’m giving it an indefinite pause for now.

It’s interesting. The characters are fun: I like Shurei, she’s smart and feisty. Ryuki is my favorite; he’s adorable and sweet and I love how he talks. There’s a bunch of other characters that intrigue me as well. The plot is interesting: I like the attraction between Shurei and Ryuki, and Seiran and Shurei, and their pasts. I really find where Shurei is going interesting, workwise, and how the characters are trying to help her step up the ladder. The art’s pretty. The story is funny, as well as serious.

I think I’m just not a big fan of the slow progress, or the long explanations, or the general historical aspect. As I said, I really want to like this series, and maybe I’ll give it another try later, but for now I think I’m done. It’s not keeping my interest, I’m finding reading it a bit boring. It’s just not for me, I don’t think.

Manga Review: The Story of Saiunkoku, Volume 3, by Kairi Yura and Sai Yukino

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 9

Goodreads Synopsis:

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) T audience. Shurei Hong, destitute but of noble birth, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from holding office. The emperor Ryuki, however, refuses to take command, leaving everything to his advisors. Shurei is asked to become a consort to the emperor to persuade the ne’er-do-well ruler to govern.

Review:

It has taken me forever to get this volume. And I even have the next one, and have had it for months, but this one was nowhere to be found. The lack of manga availability in my area is frustrating beyond belief.

In the previous two books, I was not very impressed with this series. The language is a bit dense, and I’m not all that interested in the history, and it was just not as interesting as I wanted it to be. But I already had the fourth volume (since I found it on sale), and so I needed to get this one and read it. I was hoping that it would get better, although I had doubts that it would. And in the first half of the book, I was still not really enjoying it, but in that second half… I’m not really sure why, but I started to enjoy it a bit more than I was expecting to.

In this volume, we meet a new character: Ensei, who knows Seiran from some time before. Shurei lets him stay with them, since he has nowhere else to go. Seiran ends up working outside the palace, working to catch some bandits, while Shurei and Ensei work inside the palace with a mysterious, masked, Minister Ko. Where Shurei has to pretend to be a boy, since girls can’t work in the ministry. She doesn’t mind pretending to be a boy, even if it upsets her that she can’t get a job there as a woman.

There is very little of Ryuki in this volume, which was sad because he’s pretty much my favorite character in this series. He’s just so adorable, and it’s so charming how he refers to himself as ‘we’. The little we did get to see of him was nice, and most of it included him working. Also, he spoke up at some meeting and told the ministry how he wanted to allow women to work in the palace. They did not accept this, which just means that he’s going to have to work harder to get them to agree.

I was a bit surprised by this, but only because I hadn’t thought of the possibility of women not working and how much Shurei would like to work there. And I love that Ryuki wants her to so badly. Also, Minister Ko walked out of the meeting, supposedly in outrage, but I believe he knows that Shurei is a girl, or is at least suspicious.

Oh, we also found out that Shurei is afraid of storms, and we got to see a memory of her mother and Seiran. That was cute, and very entertaining to see.

So, for some reason, I am a bit excited to read the next book, and very glad that I already have it. I hope it’s good, but I am a bit wary that it won’t be as good as I want it to be. We’ll see.

Manga Review: The Story of Saiunkoku, Volume 2, by Kairi Yura and Sai Yukino

Rating (Out of 5): 3

Publisher: VIZ Media

Volumes: 18

Goodreads Synopsis:

Shurei Hong, destitute but of noble birth, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from holding office. The emperor Ryuki, however, refuses to take command, leaving everything to his advisors. Shurei is asked to become a consort to the emperor to persuade the ne’er-do-well ruler to govern.

Review:

For some reason, I'm having a hard time getting into this series. It's just a little too slow, or something. I'm starting to like the characters, but the story moves slowly. But it's also a historical story, and I'm not too big a fan of history, even if it is fiction.

In this volume, Shurei finds out that Ryuki actually know more about what she's been teaching him than she thinks. When she demands to leave, Ryuki locks her up in his room. Even though this is really a terrible thing to do, it's actually quite funny. And Ryuki didn't know that she was a stand-in and was only staying there temporary. It's adorable how much Ryuki likes her.

And then Shurei's poisoned and kidnapped, and Ryuki has to rescue her. Ryuki has to make a deal in order to get the antidote for her. After she wakes up, they talk some, and when Shurei is saying goodbye to everyone, Ryuki kisses her and confesses that he likes men and women, (because Shurei was under the impression that he only slept with men,) to which Shurei is outraged.

And then there's a small side story about Shurei, her father, Seiran, and food. It's about when Shurei and her father first take in Seiran and Shurei's mother has just recently died. It's a cute, sweet little thing.

There were other parts in the volume with the other characters, more serious parts that I'm having a hard time with. I can't seem to remember who's who, or what's going on with all of them, why they're doing what they're doing. And some of them seem interesting, I just don't seem to remember them, and I don't think I've seen enough from several of them. I'm starting to like Shurei a bit more, and Seiran is interesting, but I haven't seen enough of him, gotten enough of his character yet, either. But I do really like Ryuki. He's adorable, and fun, and he likes Shurei and it's cute how they always argue with each other, and he refers to himself (sometimes, not always) as 'we', and he actually knows what he's doing and can fight. I like him most. But all of the other characters, and the history, is making it hard for me to read.

I'm going to continue the series, but I hope that it gets more exciting, and lets up a little on the history and background parts. I just don't enjoy them, and I do want to get into this series. But for now, it's just alright (aside from Ryuki, because I kind of love him).